Mozilla 1.3 beta is out.

NATO divided: “Washington’s effort to build a coalition for war against Iraq hit more resistance Tuesday from NATO and beyond, with allies balking and China adding its voice to calls for bolstered U.N. arms inspections.

The division in the alliance – triggered by France, Germany and Belgium blocking U.S. plans to defend Turkey against a possible new Gulf war – was one of NATO’s worst crises in its 53-year history, even though the 15 other alliance members support the United States.” Nando Times More and more likely the U.S. is going to go rogue, with some toadie states trailing along, and defy the opinion of the world community imminently for the greater glory of Dubya.

“An unemployed actor posted himself to the Tate Britain gallery in a wooden box.

Dan Shelton, 23, … said that the idea to post himself came from the technique used by inventors, who sealed their plans in a postmarked envelope to prove when they came up with their concept. He had turned himself into living art to explore the way that artists are seen as objects, he added.” Times of London

“The good vs. evil plot lines of the best-selling books are imbued with Christian morals, the Rev. Don Peter Fleetwood told a Vatican news conference Monday.” Yahoo! News

Death dance for the indie? “Gone are the days of Jim Jarmusch, when the term ‘independent film’ really meant something. Now it’s a label waiting for a vision.” LA Times

” Arty snobs or creative visionaries? Monied idlers or radical Bohemians? As The Hours approaches, (a) fight over the legacy of the Woolf Pack…” Idependent UK

Trading spaces: There’s a quiet curatorial revolution going on at the Museum of Fine Arts in my city of Boston:

Rogers’ rallying cry was “One Museum,” where curators would work together to display artworks in different media and incorporate work from other cultures and historical periods that served as influences. Paintings, sculpture and decorative arts would be displayed together so that objects could “speak” to each other.

Now Rogers’ revolution is starting to evolve in the galleries.

With the groundbreaking for the new East Wing expected in about a year, curators have been quietly reconfiguring spaces that house the permanent collection to experiment with these ideas. Boston Herald

What History Can Teach the Architects at Ground Zero: ‘ “The very notion of a modern monument is a contradiction in terms: if it is a monument, it cannot be modern, and if it is modern, it cannot be a monument.” The death of the monument has been proclaimed many times…’ [more] The New Republic

“…(S)cholars increasingly dispute the idea that mass production threatens the existence of particular cultural identities, either abroad or at home. After all, regional cuisines are displaying an unexpected vitality in this age of chain restaurants and global brand-names. Why? Many people, it seems, are content to preserve their local cultures through food that is as processed and mass-produced as a Happy Meal.” Boston Globe

“Your quote from ‘Song of Myself’ yesterday reminded me of one of my

favorite older web pages – the favorite poems project… (A) Massachusetts construction worker talks about the poem and recites

portions – including the portion you quoted – in his video. It’s really

a wonderful piece. The guy is great and clearly loves the poem. He

recites it while leaning against his backhoe. A little gem, I’ve always

thought.” [thanks]

I’m Nobody! Who are you? 
Are you ‘Nobody’ Too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Don’t tell! they’d advertise, you know!

How dreary to be Somebody!
How public like a Frog
To tell one’s name the livelong June
To an admiring Bog!

— Emily Dickinson
(dedicated to George and Laura Bush as one in a continuing series
honoring ‘banned’ poets of Feb. 12th)